Good thing I'm signing up for four 5K's and not three...
Yeah, that's right. FOUR!
The annual Clot Trot. This is a fun run for hemophilia awareness. Andy's boss's son has hemophilia (blood clotting disease-as in if he gets a cut, he has to take special medicine to make it clot so he doesn't die.) His son is still very active and ran cross country and track in school and is currently serving a mission for the church. For every other Clot Trot, we just (barely) manage the one mile. This time I'm going for the 5K. I have a few friends doing it with me and Elizabeth and Olivia. Clot Trots of the past: 2009 2010 2011 2012. Apparently we didn't go in 2008 or I didn't take pictures. We probably didn't go because Vincent was a baby....Not sure. (Maybe my husband's boss will read this and let me know if we were at the very first one.)
Color Vibe and Run or Dye don't have a real date yet, but if enough people preregister they'll set a date in Tri-Cities, probably in the summer.
The Glow Run is at night and the friends I saw who did it last year had a great time. I think I'll take at least Elizabeth with me, and maybe Olivia depending on how she does at the Clot Trot. I haven't signed up yet because I'm not sure who I'm taking, but this one is in May.
Tuesday night I asked a friend if she wanted to come over after Elizabeth was done at Jujitsu to do some run/walking with me. She brought her two kids over because her husband was working late and Andy watched them while she and I went a few laps around the school that's nearby. Olivia wanted to come too and got all dressed up after her bath and was stoked to join us (luckily she hasn't hit the smelly after running stage yet.) We started out walking and then ran when we got to the corner by the school. Olivia is fast and teased us saying, "I thought you said you were going to run! That is jogging!" She may have just the thing a drill instructor needs. We ran/jogged for a little ways before walking again and repeated that a few times. We only managed two laps around the school and I probably could have done more, but every little bit helps. I'm probably more likely to keep up the training if I'm not sore for days afterwards...
We'll need some more work to get into better shape, but really the running I did is SO much better than I would have been able to do a year ago, I feel great about it and almost certain that I won't be the last one over the finish line, but even if I am, I will have finished and that's something! These runs are all just for fun anyway.
A few bonus items of humor (to me):
On Monday Vincent rode his trike to the school Elizabeth and Olivia attend almost a mile away with me pushing Abby in the stroller. He said he was going so fast, he was "like Francesco Bernoulli" from Cars 2. Whenever he'd beat Abby and I to a corner (where he'd STOP!), Abby would clap and cheer him on, "Yea, broder!! Yea!" Sometimes we even raced him to the corner and at least once Abby and I won, but only because he let us. His little legs were pedaling super fast. (Yes, I did gather bikes last fall, but they aren't quite ready yet--very soon they will be!)
Tuesday night Elizabeth showed us her newest Jujitsu move. I videoed it. Jujitsu is all about defensive tactics and tricks anyone can use to get out of any hold from any person of any size. Watch and see:
Pretty good, right? Useful skills and dang she's strong! She did say that she would NOT be able to do that if she was being tickled at the same time. Ha.
Wednesday morning as we drove home from dropping Elizabeth and Olivia off at school, we heard a Prince song on the radio and Vincent spent a portion of the day singing one line, "You don't have to be rich to be my girl!" He even had a very Princelike falsetto.
Not so funny, but still awesome:
1. Switched our health insurance over to a new plan that will cost less. Yea!
2. Because of our mortgage refinancing last month (Quicken loans is awesome BTW!), our former mortgage company sent us a substantial check from escrow reserves that was just for us. I suppose we could have used it to throw back into our house, but we'll use it to finish paying our dental bill and to pay off Abby completely.
3. Speaking of paying off Abby, Tuesday afternoon I got a call from the hospital asking if I wanted to set up a new payment plan for Abby. (Yes, she's two and we still owe on her---crummy insurance and other bills...) I told the lady on the phone (yes, she called me!!!) that we planned on paying off the whole balance with our next payment and she said that they have discounts if you do that, like a FIFTY PERCENT OFF discount! We are totally taking advantage of that!
4. After work Tuesday Andy stopped by his aunt and uncle's house to fix their computer. They insisted on paying him a bit, even though he made them make it a little less.
We are so very blessed and well aware of where all blessings come from. We attribute it to paying our tithing and doing our best to do what is right. Andy calls it "clean living". The timing of these blessings could not come at a better time. We have progress to make on other bills and these all really help to lighten the load. I don't usually share so much financial stuff, but felt I should.
